Parquet floor block



July 31, 1934.; sc uck 1,968,714

PARQUET FLOOR BLOCK Filed Jan. 23, 1933 /3 HHROLDP ScHucK WWI/13.6

Patented July 31, 1934 UNITED STATES 1,968,714 ARQUE'r FLOOR spoonHarold r. Schuck, Shamrock, d

Application January 23,1933, Serial No. 653 ,1

- Claims.

This invention is intended to provide a novel parquet floor block, orcompositive section having certain decided advantages constituting animprovement upon my prior, PatentNo. 1,510,924 5 dated October. 7, 1924,and other articles of the Its object is to produce a block of thegreatest possible strength in a very simple and light construction,adapted or applicable to the various purposes and ways of laying for orin whichother blocks of a similar character are designed and employed.Comparative inexpense with a minimum of labor, in manufacture areadditional desiderata of importance in this connection.

The invention will be best understood by further description withreference to the attached drawing illustrating a practicable embodimentthereof in several different forms of incidental distinction.

. In said drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the basic block member;

Fig. 2 isa corresponding view of the member in one complete form. withconnecting elements at the sides;

a Fig. 3 is a like view of the member. in another complete form; I Fig.4similarly represents the member in a further complete form; v 80 Fig. 5correspondingly illustrates still anothe 1 complete form of the member;and

Fig. 6 represents a cross-sectional view of the member taken on the line6-6 of Fig. 4.

The illustrative'block, denoted as a whole by 7,

85 comprises a plurality of ordinary wooden floor pieces 8 of equallength, arranged longitudinally abreast or edge to edge with the usualtongue and groove formations alongv their edges fitted together asrepresented in the cross-sectional view of Fig. .6. These piecesadvantageously have also the usual hollow back grooving in their bottomsas shown, for greater facility'in laying in cement to a sub-floor or tootherwisev provide for ventilation therebelow. Although such pieces arepreferred, it is not essential that such shall be used.

inasmuch as substantially the same results can be obtained w th plain Stp material flat on all sides. Neither it n for the pieces to be of wood,since some other material such ascomposition fibre or the likemay incertain cases be preferred;

At opposite ends of the pieces lying thus together, grooves 01' kerfs9are formed in their edges as shown clearly in Fig. 1. It is desirablefor 35 these grooves to be of a liberal depth for purposes whichwillappearfland it is proposed to make them approximately one andja halfinches deep in a block of the ordinary size, which is 9 x 9 inches. Asthe size of the block may vary to according to preference and designhowever. there is no fixed depth for the grooves which needonly besuitably proportional to the size of the block for the intended purpose.7 a

Into the bottoms of these end grooves, uniting splines 10 of wood orothermaterial are pressed so as to lie transversely oi the piecesin whatmay be called a countersunk? position. Insuch po-: sition they do notfullyoccupy or close the grooves and so leave them outwardlytopen- Ifthe splines are three quarters of an inch wide as ordinarily preferred,the remaining parts of the grooves will of course be of correspondingmeasure in depth. Said splines serve not only to bind and hold thepieces together in a rigid blockstructure due to the compressiontherewithin, but also to strengthen the pieces in such union, andlocated as they are deep within the ends of the pieces they performthese functionson lines disposed inwardly toward the transverse centerof the block so as to render. it farstronger thanthe ordinary blochaving end-inserts. v

The block formed, in this wayis. adapted to end-toend interconnectionwith other blocks by reason of the open grooves at its ends, but is ofcourse unadapted to such connection with others at its sides becausethere is no grooving or tenoning thereat. Accordingly,.in this form itis suitable only for sectionallaying in strip fashion or relation afterthe manner of ordinary ,hardwood flooring. But-said'block constitutesthe basic member from which otherforms complete and adapted to laying inparquet relation are made.

One of these complete forms is represented in Fig. 2. .This comprisesthe basic block having grooves 11 formed in opposite sides thereof to adepth corresponding to that at which the grooves 9 in the ends are leftafter application of the uniting splines. Inthis form of the block,loose splines 12. providing interchangeable tongues are adapted to beapplied to said grooves at the sides as indicated, so as to connect thesection with others similarly formed. These loose splines or tongues mayof course be. applied in the grooves at the ends as wellas the sides ofthe block when ever it should be necessary for connection with othersections, said tongues being intended tobe applied anywhere or to any ofthe grooves with equal facility. So applied, they of courseprojectoutwardly like a tenon and fit into corresponding grooves of theadjacently placed sections. It will be noted that the ends of thecountersunk splines,

are trimmed ofl. somewhat by the cutting of the grooves in thefsides 'ofthe block, but this will not PATENT omen y be suflicient to materiallyaffect or reduce their strengthening properties and thewidth and lengththereof are such as to adequately serve that purpose if shortened evenmore. g I I Another form of the block is illustratedin Fig.

3. In this, tongues instead of grooves are formed ,at opposite sides.

Such tongues are in this inwith the grooves in the ends.

stance integral with the block, comprising portions 13 of the outermostpieces of the same, together with the end portions of the unitingsplines (10) In other words, the tongues are formed in three parts101310. This is attained simply by passing the basic block betweencoacting saws set to trim the outermost pieces into said tongueformations, the same being of course on a level In so forming thetongues. the saws merely cut away edge portions of the outermost pieceswithout cutting away the uniting splines and so provide the tongues insaid three parts 101310. It should be stated in this connection thatwhen tongues are to be thus formed on the blocks, it is preferable tohave the outermost pieces of a wider width than the others in theinitial assembly, so that after the cutting away in tongue formation,they will superficially appear to be of the same width as theintermediate pieces. This tongue formation has an advantage over theordinary integral tongue of block members in that the ends of theuniting splines (10) forming extremital continuations thereof addgreatly to their strength and rigidity, eliminating the possibility ofany splitting or breaking away from the block. 50 rigid are the tonguesso formed that it is impossible to knock them off or pry them loose byattempted leverage within the groove of another section. A materialimprovement accordingly resides in this feature apart from otherscharacterizing this invention.

Fig. 4 represents a further complete form of the block, in which arecombined features of those of Figs. 2 and 3. In other words, in thisparticular form the block is provided with a groove 11 in one side andan integral tongue 101310 on the opposite side. Into said groove a loosetongue 12 is of course adapted to fit for connection with an adjacentsection, while the integral tongue will fit in the groove of anotheradjacent section. The two grooves at the ends are of course intended toreceive either the integral tongue or the loose tongue of correspondingsections. This form accordingly embodies certain advantages of both theprior described forms and so may be laid in various ways, includingreversal.

Fig. 5 illustrates a still further form of the block embodying amodification of the previous one. In this, a groove 11 is formed in oneside and an integral tongue 10-13-10 on the other side the same as theprevious form, but instead of a loose tongue applied in said sidegroove, the tongue 12 is fitted into one of the end grooves, and if sodesired may be frictionally or adhesively aflixed therein so as to bevirtually integral with the block. This provides a block having a tongueon one side and end and a groove in the other side and end. It hascertain advantages and desirability in laying into a fioor construction,although it is not considered superior to any of the other forms, eachof which will produce a floor of the same appearance and durablequality.

It will be noted that in all of the illustrated forms of the block, theuniting splines countersunk in the grooves at the ends terminate flushor substantially fiush with the side edges of the block at the samelevel. In other words, the ends of the splines lie flush with said edgeswhether tongues or grooves are formed at the sides. It a groove isformed in the side, its end is flush with the bottom edge of the grooveand if a tongue is formed on the side, its end is flush with the outeredge of the tongue.

A novel and improved floor block of extremely strong, simple and lightconstruction is accordingly provided, which is adapted or applicable tothe various purposes and laying methods of other blocks. It has theadvantage of comparative inexpense in manufacture due to the minimumamount of workmanship required and the elimination of any special partor different material for uniting the pieces together. The unitingsplines are simply pressed into countersunk position within the endgrooves while the component pieces are held under lateral compressionand this may be done very speedily and expeditiously by machine so as tomanufacture the blocks in quantities far exceeding the possibility ofothers requiring special workmanship or treatment. The inventionaccordingly makes a valuable contribution to the art as an improvementover the ordinary floor block or section.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A floor block comprising a plurality of flooring pieces arrangedlongitudinally abreast, uniting splines countersunk in squeezing fitinto transverse grooves in the edges of the pieces at opposite endsthereof so as to rigidly bind the pieces together on lines inwardlyspaced from such ends and still leave said grooves outwardly open, and atongue formed along the side edge of an outermost of the pieces; saidtongue having its ends composed of extremities of said splines in thetransverse grooves.

2. A floor block comprising a plurality of flooring pieces arrangedlongitudinally abreast, uniting splines countersunk in squeezing fitinto transverse grooves in the edges of the pieces at opposite endsthereof so as to rigidly bind the pieces together on lines inwardlyspaced from such ends and still leave said grooves outwardly .open, anda tongue formed along the side edges of an outermost of the pieces; saidtongue being in three parts with its intermediate portion integral withsuch piece and its ends composed of extremities of said splines.

3. A fioor block comprising two or more pieces united together andprovided with tongues on opposite edges, the two other edges beinggrooved and provided with splines. uniting said pieces in a squeezingfit, and extending beyond the pieces to form the extremities of thetongues.

4. A fioor block comprising a plurality of wooden pieces arrangedlongitudinally abreast and having a tongue in one side edge, said tonguehaving an intermediate part with a grain running substantially parallelto said pieces and end parts with grain runnings cross-wise thereto; thecrosswise grain parts being formed by wooden splines inserted in groovesin the end edges of the block and uniting the several pieces together ina squeezing fit within said grooves leaving the latter open to engagethe tongues of other blocks.

5. A floor block comprising a plurality of fiooring pieces arrangedtogether longitudinally abreast and formed with a tongue on one sideedgeand with a groove on the other side edge; its edges at opposite endsbeing grooved and provided with transverse splines countersunk in saidgrooved edges in a squeezing fit uniting the pieces together andextending flush with the tongue on the one side edge and with the bottomof the groove on the other side edge of the block.

HAROLD P. SCHUCK.

